FL Zaxxon
From Sega Retro
FL Zaxxon is a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) tabletop game manufactured by Bandai Electronics under license by Sega. It is based on the 1982 arcade game, Zaxxon, and is one of several VFD games to be released as part of Bandai's FL series (the other Sega release is FL Pengo).
Though released in more regions of the world (it has been spotted in Japan, South Korea, "Europe" and Canada) it was never quite as popular as Coleco's attempt at bringing the game to this medium, and is therefore relatively rare and undocumented. The exact release date is not known, though estimates would suggest it was around the early 1980s. Unlike the Coleco version, FL Zaxxon requires a mains power supply.
Despite its name and license, FL Zaxxon isn't built much like its arcade counterpart - it is played from a top perspective and the ship travels forwards into the screen, similar to the Atari 2600 and Intellivision ports of the game. It uses a mirror to help simulate a 3D effect. Bandai would have a second attempt with its Zaxxon LCD handheld.
FL Zaxxon cases are meant to be blue, but thirty years of aging has cause many of them to turn grey.
JP box (front)
JP box (back)
CA box (front)
